Last week, I was disc golfing in Brookside Park, when my friend pointed out the colorful new construction on the south side of the park. It turns out that this was the Paramount School of Excellence, which I mentioned on this blog last year. The school has a ton of smart ideas:

It’s located within the former Masonic Lodge. A reuse will use less resources than a new construction.

The children will take part in planting a garden and help manage a pond.

Robots! Discovery Zones! I believe that learning should be fun, especially in this day of ADD and over-stimulation.

I have to include a few more interesting nuggets that have been relayed to me by co-blogger Graeme Sharpe, who has met the school’s director, Tommy Redics:

The lodge was almost destined to become a private club until the school found the building.

Better yet, they’re also installing an outreach program where the school will renovate nearby houses and lease them to families with kids who need a scholarship to attend the school. I noticed a few of the nearby houses did seem to be in better shape than they used to be, so it seems like this process is underway.

The true measure of success for a new school can only be measured after it has been open for a few years. With a solid, innovative foundation, institutions such as this and Project School can become inspiring models of elementary education. We need this to work. Our city’s residents depend on it.

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4 Responses to “ “Paramount School of Excellence”

Another school to consider, for different and similar reasons, is Shortridge Magnet High School for Law & Public Policy. In addition to being in a beautiful historic building (Vonnegut & Lugar are graduates), Shortridge is offering empowering educational experiences to students – demanding that they see themselves as responsible school-community members and supporting them through partnerships that include Butler University (college credit in high school!) and a range of other community programs.

Shortridge is in the middle of transitioning – from a traditional school to a magnet, from a middle school to a school serving grades 7 to 12, from an underperformer to a super-performer – they have a fantastic principal who really gets what it means to focus on students.

Herron, yes, they are good, too, for sure!

There are many more schools – IPS, township, charter, private, parochial – that are awesome and are doing amazing work in the face of significant challenges. I feel really lucky to get to work with many of them. Too many people don’t get to see inside the system – I think that’s what leads to a lot of negativity about schools and educators.

Bad schools are no longer any kind of excuse to avoid living in IPS territory. The pickings were kind of slim when my kids were little, but the explosion of magnet and charter schools means that your child can now get at least as good an education as in the suburbs. But it does require parental investigation and action…not like just choosing the part of Fishers with the public elementary, junior high, and high schools you think are best.